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After completing the 1st cycle at Liceu Camilo Castelo Branco, in Vila Real, he went to study at Liceu Gil Vicente, in Lisbon, where he completed the 2nd and 3rd cycle. In 1964, he finished his course at the Military Academy. After passing through Mafra, at the Army Sergeants School in Caldas da Rainha, he was later posted to Lamego, where he took a special operations course.
On March 15, 1974, generals Costa Gomes and Spínola, from the highest positions in the Portuguese Armed Forces, were dismissed because of the book “Portugal and the future” and for missing the meeting of the “rheumatic brigade”, as it was known. within the military.
On March 16, 1974, the “Caldas Uprising”, also known as the Caldas Revolt, occurred, an unsuccessful coup attempt. “After this day, instructions were given to Major Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, who was responsible for operational planning, to speed up the process”, Rodrigo Pizarro tells VTM.
In Lamego, after an insubordination by the military, from Lisbon they asked: “how is Lamego?” The answer was: “We are on the move.” But “nobody moved”, reveals the colonel, who at the time was a captain and was transferred to Aveiro, like other colleagues who were posted in various parts of the country.
“We already knew what was going to happen, we just didn’t know the right day.” On April 23rd, “Rodrigo Sousa e Castro knocked on my door, with the order of operations April 25th. It was then that I knew exactly the day it was going to happen.”
After receiving the order for operations, Rodrigo Pizarro, on April 24th, gathered some of the militiamen, “who were on our side”, but was unable to speak to Ensign Cunha. “I spoke to the person in charge of the magazine to bring us the necessary ammunition to supply the entire company, because there were only two thousand ammunition in the field.”
THE PASSWORDS
The two passwords of the revolutionaries’ code were “After Goodbye”, which would air at around 11:00 am and “Grândola, Vila Morena” at 00:20 am. “I was at the house of a friend of ours. As soon as the first password came out, I headed, in a civil vehicle, to the field in Aguadas de Cima, where the Company was stationed. “Dressed in camouflage, I arrive at the tent and say “it’s time, let’s go”. We formed the Company, distributed the ammunition and continued, because we had to be at 3:00 am in Figueira da Foz, where we would meet with three more companies, RI 10, RI 14 (Viseu), CICA and another from the Heavy Artillery Regiment No. 2 of Figueira. from Foz. The operating companies were mine and Viseu, the others only went with recruits”.
The first objective was to liberate the Fort of Peniche, then proceed to Lisbon. “After a delay on RI 14, due to a fire in the vehicle park, we left without them. Our biggest fear was to bypass RI 7 (Leiria) which was considered an enemy. It went well and we arrived in Caldas da Rainha with the three subunits”.
After several adventures, they arrived in Peniche, on a gray Thursday with light rain. “We arrived around 8 am and as I had never been to Peniche, I asked where the Fort was. There they showed me the way, convinced that the two companies that were supposedly ahead of me had already taken care of the matter. When I arrived, I saw the GNR on the Fort’s battlements and the weekly fair was taking place. I told the lieutenant to organize the vehicles and point out the two fire hydrants at the entrance to the Fort and wait to see what would happen”, he reports.
“I told the stallholders to leave the premises in five minutes. And they left so quickly that no one was seen.”
Rodrigo Pizarro went to the Fort’s director, who asked him if there was any problem.
“I told him I wanted to take charge of the Fort, he replied that he had no orders from Lisbon. I stated that they were revolutionary orders. He hesitated and asked me for half an hour to contact Lisbon”.
However, other companies arrived and stayed on the beach. “I went to the Force commander and explained what was happening, he decided that the CICA team would stay in Peniche and we would go to Lisbon”, where the Prime Minister had already surrendered. “In Lisbon there were thousands of people on the street, all very happy, so I asked myself how these people were under the dictatorship for 48 years”.
He confesses to VTM that he “felt very good” for having actively participated in the Carnation Revolution. “It was worth it and I always say April 25th, because the country is different for much better”, concludes the commander who liberated the Peniche Fort, one of the most rigorous prisons of the Fascist Regime.
